Arguably called the sex tourism capital of the world, Thailand is now deliberately using the family tourism label to shed the sex destination tag, a Thai diplomat said here Friday.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of an event organised in Panaji to promote Thailand as a tourism destination, Tomwit Jarnson, the Thai consul general in Mumbai, said family tourism would eventually edge Thailand away from the slur of 'sex tourism' in the years to come.

"We are trying to project Thailand as a family tourism destination. We are slowly changing the perception of Thailand to the rest of the world," Jarnson said.

Jarnson said the Thai food and dance festival in Goa, in association with the Vivanta by Taj hotels and resorts, was just such an attempt to project Thailand as a place steeped in culture, which is quite similar to the culture of the Indian sub-continent and tradition and a rich and diverse culinary palette.

"Destination Thailand is an annual event organised by us which helps us reach out to the people of India through our food, music and dance. We are very happy to have the festival in Goa this year where the people of this city will experience the unique characteristics and rich cultural heritage which our country has to offer," he said.

"We are slowly developing facilities in Thailand which will attract family tourism. We have a lot of Indian families who travel to Thailand," Jarnson said.

He further said that the Thailand tourism authorities were trying to project Phuket - which, along with Bangkok and Pattaya, is regarded as the prime sex tourism area in Thailand - as a family tourism destination.

Although banned by law, prostitution is common place in the tourism districts of Thailand, which nearly 14 million tourists visit annually -- a large chunk of these are single males or male groups of tourists seeking sex or sex-oriented fun.

A recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report has pegged the number of female prostitutes in the country at 2 lakh.

"We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer." HST

Pattaya and Phuket are both filled with them. Russians in particular. And they're with their families. They don't seem to be too interested in the sex tourism stuff. Even the young males always have girlfriends with them.

The russians enjoy pattaya because they can wear there horrible cloth and get dead drunk before noon. The indians just wanna get drugged and robbed. Don´t know if families from other nations would enjoy that. But you never know, there are a lot of arabs in the lover suk-area and I always wonder what they are doing there so you never know how things will develop.

@Soi Dog - correct, as are the Arabs, there is a particular type of Thai ho, wearing a particular style of make-up, frequenting particular hotels and areas in the the lower Suk area - they are not there for fun but for an ever-growing clientele from the mid-east.And, with due respect, the Indians and Arabs are 'not welcome' in some areas/place for very good reasons.

There used to be a sign in Jan bar in Pattaya back in the 80's that said in English and Arabic, : "To all Arabs; We don't fuck ur women so don't fuck with ours"

There are certain parts of Bangkok ( soi 3 area) and parts of Pattaya that you would think ur in the middle east except for the WHITE/Overweight Thai girls

"We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer." HST